Half a Secret
by Lizicia
Summary: "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." A secret relationship gets blown wide open but it's not as easy to figure out as it looks like. Slight AU.


**A/N:** I honestly don't know where this came from because I don't write AU but this is somewhat exactly that. I guess I'm just really missing Olivia Wilde on the show.

So, in this world Thirteen didn't have a girlfriend when she left PPTH. Takes place directly after the latest episode when Park asks Chase for a drink and then approximately a week after that.

**Disclaimer:** Characters and the general concept belong to David Shore, I'm merely borowing them.

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><p><em>To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.<em> (Henry Ward Beecher)

The silence around them was quickly approaching the point of being embarrassing. Park had figured this would be an opportunity to get to know Chase but he was still uncomfortable in her presence, quietly drinking his beer and looking everywhere else.

"If you didn't want to go out with me, why did you say yes?"

She might be on the path to try to open up but her bluntness wasn't so quick to disappear.

Chase looked a bit startled by her words and she saw a startled expression forming on his face. "Uh, well...you asked and...and I had nothing better to do tonight, so...I thought this would be a chance for us to...talk?" He probably hadn't meant to formulate a question but his nervousness got the better of him.

"Look, I don't want to have sex with you, if that's what you're worried about."

That made him even more uncomfortable. "Yes, sure, I didn't think you would. But...glad it's out in the open now."

Park sighed. This getting to know people thing was not really working out if nobody even liked her or wanted to tell her anything. But despite her social awkwardness, she was good at reading people when they were trying not to show something, a trait she would use to her advantage whenever she saw something of the kind.

"Come on, I know you're seeing someone."

This caught Chase's attention as his eyes fixated on her, forming a question but also confirming what she'd said. "No, I'm not."

"Sure." Park snorted at his blatant denial, wondering what a terrible subject for interrogation he would make.

"That time House was solving the death of that little boy? You were late, you had had a manicure and had been waxed and it was for the TV doctor position, sure. But you weren't lying when you said you had met a girl even though you downplayed the importance of that."

He just continued to stare at her, not trusting his words to deny this but also not willing to reveal anything more. Park, who was not a people person at all, Park, whose social ineptitude was cringeworthy to watch, had seen all that in him? Chase gulped his beer down quickly, unnerved by her blank expression and blatant outbursts of thought.

"If I was seeing someone, which I'm not saying I am, why would I go out with you, then?"

"I asked that first. I don't know."

He pursed his lips together, trying to figure something out but understood quickly enough that he couldn't. He couldn't explain why he'd gone out with her and, at the same time, say he wasn't seeing someone because those things would contradict each other.

"Yes, I am seeing someone."

She nodded but the inquisitive expression on her face remained. "So, why did you go out with me?"

"Because if I didn't, I would've had to say that at the hospital and everyone would've known."

"Why is it a secret?"

Chase let out a frustrated sigh. She really wasn't letting this go.

"You're seeing Adams, aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?" He controlled his expressions this time and she was convinced this was what he was hiding.

"I may be socially challenged but I'm not stupid. She's pretty, I would say your type, and probably every man's type. You thought I was asking you both for drinks in the elevator and looked for a way out while she was very amused by it. So, just admit it – you are seeing a coworker again."

The opening he'd been waiting for presented itself magically and he smiled a bit smugly, relieved he'd found a way out. "Yes, alright, I'm seeing someone I've worked with."

Park nodded, relieved she'd seen through him. "So, isn't she mad you're out here with me?"

"Like you said, you're not trying to have sex with me. It's fine."

She rolled her eyes. "Please. Call her; it's not like we have that much to talk about."

He smirked and sent a quick text, clinking Park's glass in a congratulatory manner. And when he left fifteen minutes later, she could see the whirl of dark hair just outside the door, greeting him with a hug and then leaving hand in hand.

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><p>"House, you have to take this case."<p>

"But I don't want to, _mom_, it's so boring."

The team watched House and Foreman try to outplay each other, like they always did and probably always would. Chase was lost in thought, Taub merely rolled his eyes at the all too familiar sight while Park and Adams seemed to listen to the conversation.

House blatantly ignored Foreman and fixated his gaze on Park. "Anyone have something interesting to tell me? Anything besides this boring, do-a-bunch-of-tests-case we have going here? You know something."

"Chase is dating Adams." Just out with it, so it wouldn't be a big deal.

But at this statement, Adams' eyes practically bulged out of her head and Chase found it difficult to contain his smirk.

"What? No! Why would you say that?" She was blushing but not in the manner of a woman who'd been caught in a relationship; rather as a woman who was embarrassed by incorrect information.

Park was confused at this but continued. "Yes, you are. He told me."

Now everyone's gazes turned to Chase who was trying very hard not to smile but failed. "I never said I was seeing _Adams_."

"Why would you lie like that?"

"Because you failed to ask the right questions." House was now interested and surprised at Chase having talked to Park about something like this but figured Park was trying to be more social, in her clumsy way.

"Chase is not seeing Adams because he's been seeing someone else for...oh, let's say a year? I think that should fit the time frame."

"Wait, you _knew_?" Now Chase was simply baffled.

"You may have fooled all the rest but come on."

"Am I the only one who doesn't understand what's happening here?" Taub glanced at everyone and was met by similarly confused looks, except for Chase's mortified and House's smug look.

"What did Chase say, Park?"

"That he was seeing someone he was working with."

"But not Adams?"

"Well...he didn't explicitly say it was Adams. But I saw the back of her head and she was a brunette, just like Adams." Park recalled the conversation and realized Chase hadn't really mentioned any names, just let her lead but was now even more confused by the conflicting evidence.

"It's the new nurse, right? Amanda. She's a hot brunette and she's someone you're working with." Taub chimed in, interested in everyone else's private life.

"It's not someone from the hospital, okay? Why is this so important? We should just take a case and get on with it." Now Chase was starting to feel a bit irritated, knowing that the longer they continued with this, the more ammunition it would give House because he was simply guessing, not really knowing who he was seeing.

"When do you have the time to meet women outside the hospital and maintain a relationship? It's got to be Adams, so she's accepted you working for House and always doing crazy things. And you really should start with this case and hear about Chase's adventures from your own time." Foreman decided to end the discussion, trying to pull rank as the dean.

"So, you've been seeing Adams _for a year_? Before she even worked for House?" Now even Park understood this really didn't make any sense.

"Not Adams but it's someone who has worked for me, so she really can't give you a hard time." House was more and more interested in this game, waiting for Chase to give up and just admit it.

"You're seeing Cameron again? Your ex-wife? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Taub felt like he'd figured it out but this irritated Chase, so he finally decided to solve this once and for all.

"It's not Cameron! It's Remy, okay? Everybody happy now?"

House felt victorious, after having guessed this a while ago, while Foreman stared at Chase with a mixture of anger and unbelief written all over his face and Taub's mouth simply gaped open. Park felt like she was the only one who didn't understand. "Who's Remy?"

"Thirteen, Dr. Hadley, the wonderful but unfortunately quickly dying bisexual." House brought the discussion to an end as he watched Foreman storm off and the rest of them take this information in. "So, 37-year-old female with stiffness in legs and slurred speech..."

* * *

><p>"Well, <em>you<em> look like you've been steamrolled and thrown off a cliff." Her playful voice greeted Chase from the living room and despite feeling exactly like that, he felt the hint of smile forming.

"That tends to happen when you have to tell a mother of three that she has Lou Gehrig's disease and she probably won't see her youngest start school."

He dropped on the couch next to her and was immediately calmed by her quiet presence and innate softness which engulfed him. Remy wrapped her arms around him and didn't say anything, knowing exactly how messed up that was.

"They figured it out today. Us."

She smiled and looked up at him, seeing a relief in his eyes. They hadn't exactly hidden the relationship but she hadn't felt like sharing it with House when she'd seen him and they'd figured sooner or later it would come out on its own.

"And it only took them, what, four weeks since you started working there again? And they're supposed to be brilliant; _he's_ supposed to be brilliant."

The hint of a smile on Chase's face at her response was enough to let Remy know he was going to be okay, eventually.

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><p><strong>AN:** I know, I know. A secretly happy relationship for them and really not that much of a relationship in the story? I guess I'm a bit irritated by the writers making Chase and Adams flirt (which, for me, is pretty painful to watch) and now this weird thing with Park? I couldn't really hold myself back. Any feedback is appreciated, as always.


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